Chapter 24: A Model for Reform in Teaching Chemistry: With a Focus on Prospective Elementary Teachers

The focus of this chapter is to provide the reader with a review of effective teaching strategies that improve all students’ understanding of chemistry, and in particular, the chemistry background of prospective elementary teachers. At the present time, the reform of chemistry teaching is becoming much more widespread than in the past with the support of funding from the National Science Foundation. Not only have new approaches to the teaching of chemistry been supported, but also the dissemination of more interactive models of teaching. The preparation of teachers, especially at the elementary level, is very important because if children are turned off to chemistry in their early years, they are less likely to select chemistry-related careers. This chapter highlights the major teaching innovations that are being used throughout the United States that are based on the NSF-funded projects and provides references to publications that describe the teaching practices and their effectiveness. It also describes in more detail particular innovations that have been implemented at Indiana University in a chemistry-based course for prospective elementary teachers. This Introduction to Scientific Inquiry course is used as a model as one way to teach basic chemistry concepts using an inquiry approach as advocated in the National Science Education Standards.